15 Best Thai Horror Movies Of All Time, Ranked

The film industry in Thailand has been active since the 1920s, and the horror genre has been a part of it for most of that time. The genre saw its biggest rise, though, as part of the Asian horror boom of the early 2000s. While Japanese horrors like "Ringu" (which inspired "The Ring" franchise in the U.S.) and "Dark Water" are among the country's best horror films, Thailand made waves with the release of 2004's "Shutter." The genre has stayed a constant ever since.

While Thai horror filmmakers deliver the occasional slasher or creature feature, the bread and butter of the country's horror output remains tales of the supernatural. The country's culture is rich in folklore, and it's well-served by a populace that gives far more credence to the idea of ghosts, spirits, and magical powers than westerners do. Where an American horror movie might take half its running time before characters come to believe they're being haunted, its Thai counterpart passes that marker just a few minutes in leaving more room and time to deal with the threat.

Here's a look at the 15 best Thai horror movies.

"Laddaland" is in some ways the most generic of the films on this list, and it's arguably a little too long, but the 2011 film's themes and inciting elements are as timely today as they ever were. A family moves out of Bangkok and into a manufactured suburban neighborhood, but rather than be a step up, the move sees them falling towards their doom. Neighbors are dying, there's rumors of ghosts haunting the subdivision, and the air is heavy with stress, worry, and violence. What's driving it all, you ask? Capitalism, baby!

Financial distress is a massive concern for people in every country, and it's a natural fit for the horror genre, as it works to create feelings and fears that we're all too familiar with. 2010's "Dream Home" remains the most horrifying take on the subject, but the themes are well-executed here leading to a third act that hits harder and harder until the final death brings home the tragedy. Ghostly visions and jump scares are essentially attempts at misdirection as the true terror creeps in with painful worries about the inability to support your loved ones. It's a gut punch.

Comparisons to Guillermo Del Toro's 2001 chiller "The Devil's Backbone" (one of the 106 best horror movies ever made) have dogged "Dorm" ever since its release in 2006, but the similarities don't stop Songyos Sugmakanan's film from standing on its own. A young boy named Ton is sent to boarding school where he struggles to fit in and find friends, but he finds one friendly face after hearing stories about a ghost who haunts the halls. Two points to you if you can guess something about Ton's new friend...

Still, while you'll probably see some of the story beats coming, the film unspools its narrative with care for both its characters and atmosphere. It's spooky and sad in equal measure, and both of the lead child performers do strong work in showing their isolation and the joy of ultimately finding a friend. The old buildings offer opportunities for both beauty and creepiness, and the film's color-drained look only adds to the oppressive feeling of loneliness. 

Thailand's genre film industry isn't heavy on the slashers and instead leans mostly towards the supernatural. "Scared" is one of the rare exceptions, and a mild misstep of an ending aside, it's a terrifically gory (though maybe not one of the goriest movies ever made) and thrilling time for fans. The setup sees a busload of high schoolers take a misguided turn that lands the bus in a river and the teens in the crosshairs of a deadly killer. It's an unusually big ensemble meaning there isn't really much time for viewers to connect with any of them.

That's normally a bad sign, but that large pool of protagonists means something very good for slasher fans. Once the killing starts — fairly quickly, another bonus — they never really stop. One is skewered by a homemade booby trap, and the rest start falling almost immediately as the killer unloads on them with a veritable bevy of murderous tools ranging from blades to their exhaust-spewing SUV. Our focus narrows, and soon we're rooting for the handful making an attempt at fighting back with both ferocity and ingenuity. Just maybe stop the film when it cuts to black five minutes before the end.

Should you watch 2023's "Death Whisperer" before pressing play on "Death Whisperer 2" that followed in 2024? Yes, probably, but this sequel is still the superior film, upping the ante on the original's fairly traditional story and execution. It's been three years since Yak (spoiler alert) watched his friends and his sister die at the hands of a dark spirit, and it upended his entire life. He now spends his days hunting and killing malevolent entities while always searching for the one who caused his sister's bloody demise: the woman in black.

Genre fans can never have enough action/horror hybrids, and while this one can't touch the likes of the sensational, gnarly "Overlord" when it comes to the firepower, it's still an energetic and exciting step in the right direction. The film covers its horror bases with possessions, bloody assaults, zombies, and more, but it stands apart from the usual Thai horrors by adding in lots of gun play. Yak takes a page from "Evil Dead" and Ash with both his look and his boomstick, and it works to give an aggressive, adventurous approach to the spooky stuff. Here's hoping they continue ramping it up for part three.

A young woman named Rahtree leads a solitary life, but things change when she's wooed by a young man who knocks her up, encourages an abortion, and then abandons her back at her apartment where she bleeds out and dies. It's at this point where I should mention that, yes, "Rahtree: Flower of the Night" is a comedy. Rahtree's landlady discovers her corpse, but the dead woman refuses to leave. Instead, she haunts the entire building, driving away tenants, hurting and vomiting on a series of exorcists, and generally feeling sorry for herself.

Writer/director Yuthlert Sippapak's 2003 feature spawned three sequels and a director's cut (a concept that only exists because of "The Twilight Zone"), and while its tonal tightrope sometimes wobbles, it's easy to see why Rahtree's fans are ride or die for her. The character is wronged by her lover, assaulted by her stepfather, and generally ignored by everyone else. It's a tragedy both for her and for society at large knowing how many of us are content looking the other way when it comes to other people's problems, but it also brings great jokes and some amusing "The Exorcist"-related gags.

The karaoke horror subgenre is as niche as it gets, but if 2003's excellent "Karaoke Terror" is its past and the upcoming "Bad Karaoke" is its future, well, its present is the delightfully unhinged horror/comedy called "Killer Karaoke" (aka "Premika"). Prepare for some tonal whiplash as the premise kicks off with a teenage girl being killed and dismembered with her heart being tucked inside an old karaoke machine. A hotel's grand opening sees the machine turned on resulting in the undead Premika stalking guests and demanding they sing a song — nail it, and you live, but if you sing off-key or mess up the lyrics? Well, as the opening song from "What We Do in the Shadows" says, "You're dead, you're dead, you're dead."

The film's third act finds some dark and surprisingly emotional beats, but getting there is a broadly comedic romp as the hotel's guests are introduced, interact with each other, and face their fears with a microphone in hand. Each song is presented almost like a live music video with costume changes and props, and they keep the film visually popping with color and energy. Check your serious bone at the door, and just settle in for the goofy fun.

It's not news to suggest that guilt, grudges, and ghosts go hand-in-hand in the horror genre, and that's made true once again with 2007's "Alone." Pim is a happily married young woman who returns home for a family issue only to discover that something has been waiting. Ghostly images and whispers haunt her childhood home, and she soon realizes that the entity just might be her long-dead conjoined twin, Ploy, who didn't survive their surgical separation. Pim had promised her they'd stay together forever, but that promise died in an instant alongside her sister. However, it looks like Ploy has neither forgotten nor forgiven.

That's already enough of a premise to support a horror movie, but genre veterans Parkpoom Wongpoom and Banjong Pisanthanakun have a bit more up their sleeves. The third act delivers some intriguingly messed up story turns adding new layers to everything that's come before, and it gives the movie an extra emotional punch. The film's combination of setup and twist is simple and satisfying, as evidenced by a whopping seven remakes it's received.

The legend of Mae Nak is a well-known part of Thai folklore and has been the basis of two dozen or so films over the years. A man returns from war to his wife and baby, but he's oblivious to the truth that neither is still alive. 1999's "Nang Nak" is a solid and serious take on the legend, but 2013's "Pee Mak" raises the ante by adding both a real budget and some unexpected laughs. It's essentially a horror/comedy finding laughs with both wit and some very broad gags, and it's currently Thailand's highest grossing film of all time.

Familiarity with the legend and past films adds context, but audiences coming into it fresh will still find both laughs and thrills. Mak is the husband blind to his wife's ghostly status, and it's his war buddies who first realize something is amiss. The comedy comes from their varied reactions and attempts at getting through to Mak, but the film is also pretty heavy on the pratfalls and slapstick, even as it makes time for the emotional core of its all. It walks a fine line, and while it tinkers and has fun with the story, it still honors the tragedy at its heart.

"The Pool" is only the second film to make this last that finds its horror thrills without ever touching on the supernatural, and it's also the last. Instead, the film is a blend of creature feature and survival horror that kicks off with a premise that's as ingenious as it is ludicrous. Hired to clean up an Olympic-sized pool, an unfortunate young man instead falls asleep while floating atop the water, only to wake up to discover the water has been drained and there are no accessible ladders. Oh, and there's a hungry crocodile nearby too.

Opinions vary sharply on this one, but your odds of appreciating it increase if you go in on its own darkly comic wavelength. The film marries its genre elements with some pitch-black humor, regarding everything from our protagonist's situation to his efforts at escape to the name of the poor guy's dog. You'll cheer when he gets close, you'll shake your fists when he fails, and you'll smile at the endlessly creative ways that director Ping Lumpraploeng finds to use and explore an empty pool.

It's not often that sequels overwhelmingly surpass their predecessors, but here's a second example. "Art of the Devil II" carries over only two things from the first film: the title and the general theme of revenge. This time out, it's a teacher seeking supernaturally fueled justice against her former students. Seems simple enough, but you're going to want to wear a neck brace while watching this one as the numerous story turns might just strain your neck. No one's innocent, everyone's guilty of something, and the odds seem slim that anyone's going to make it out alive.

Curses, torture, ghostly visitations, and infidelity are just the tip of the unpleasant but highly entertaining iceberg here, and it's something of a small miracle that a story this heavy in flashbacks and misdirects remains as easy to follow as it is, especially seeing as there are a whopping seven credited directors. I can't pretend to understand how that was accomplished, but the end result is a gory, mean, and devious slice of horror about actions and consequences.

As mentioned at the start, "Shutter" wasn't the first horror film out of Thailand, but it was the one that made international audiences sit up and take notice of the country's genre filmmaking. Like Hideo Nakata's "Ringu" before it, it pairs a ghostly tale with the aid of a visual medium inside the film itself. Here it's a variation on spirit photography, the idea that a camera can capture a spirit's image, and it's triggered when a couple accidentally run over a pedestrian with their car and  leave her to die.

She reenters their lives through their photographs, and it's made immediately (and understandably) clear that she's back with ill intentions. The film finds some truly creepy beats through its use of photography and lighting, and the scares are ultimately heightened by some dark story turns in the film's third act that will have viewers revisiting their allegiances. It's worth noting that, while not as bad as its reputation suggests, the Hollywood remake (also called "Shutter") starring Joshua Jackson really can't compare to this Thai original.

The Thai film industry is still small enough that's it's fairly uncommon to see a production set elsewhere, let alone filmed outside of Thailand. "Countdown" was shot mostly in country, but its story plays out in a New York City apartment on New Year's Eve. Three young Thai transplants are living their best lives on their parents' dime, but they get a reality check when a new-to-them drug dealer named Jesus turns a simple transaction into an awkward night of terror. These ungrateful youths are about to see both their choices and their beliefs tested in some very uncomfortable ways.

All three protagonists are given solid performances, but Jarinporn Joonkiat does an especially compelling and affecting job as Bee, the film's most sympathetic character. We can't help but feel for her situation, both past and present, as she gives the film its heart. Still, it's David Asavanond's Jesus who steals the movie. His shift from obnoxious dealer to uncomfortably threatening houseguest to moral avenger is endlessly entertaining and unsettling, and it helps give what's essentially a single-location tale some real energy and sizzle.

Found footage films and horror-themed faux-docs come with all manner of issues that are difficult to avoid, but the good ones succeed at diverting viewer attention with a combination of compelling narrative and thrilling visuals. "The Medium" is one of the best and scariest found footage films, as it drops audiences into a filmmaker's attempt at documenting the beliefs and behaviors of a shaman named Nim. She's reportedly a skilled practitioner capable of expelling evil spirits from human hosts, and it's not long before the film crew gets to experience those claims firsthand.

Banjong Pisanthanakun's second solo effort on this list unfolds with a sturdy, slow burn approach to a subject treated with serious and detailed respect. The intricacies of various rituals add weight to the characters and proceedings, and it works to make the horror more compelling once things get increasingly out of hand. The intentional pacing of the first half ramps up with aggressive energy, satisfying scares, and unsettling visuals featuring some wonderfully creepy beats you won't soon forget.

"Operation Undead" is a terrifically affecting anti-war film (even if it didn't make our list of the best anti-war movies) exploring its themes with energy, style, and pathos. Its focus is a group of green recruits directed into battle by older men secure and safe away from the carnage, and director Kongkiat Khomsiri gives as much detail and weight to the young men's emotional state as he does the violence, pain, and physical suffering of war. It's a tragedy painted in swathes of red and screams of horror, and things only get worse for everyone involved when the young men killed on the battlefield return to life as zombies.

The extra twist of the knife here is that these zombies are far from the mindless brain munchers we're used to. These guys are driven by an unquenchable hunger for human flesh, but they also retain their own memories, awareness, and human consciousness. They know what they're doing is horrifying, and that knowledge in the face of an inability to stop is an idea more terrifying than most zombie films would bother to address.

Thailand, along with some other Southeast Asian countries, is home to legends about a mythological creature called a krasue. Young woman possessed or inhabited by the being experience something horrifying at night as their head detaches from their body, complete with dangling entrails, and flies away in search of blood, only to return before sunrise. It's an incredibly visceral and visual image that's been brought to life in numerous films before this, but it's 2019's "Inhuman Kiss" that nails the horror and tragedy equally while also delivering an attractive and thrilling watch.

There's a tragic love triangle at the heart of the film as a young woman is afflicted and tries to hide it from everyone including the two young men who love her. It's layered with social commentary as well, though, following the introduction of a band of krasue hunters powered by misogyny, faith, and fear of the unknown who feel very aligned with the witch hunters of our own country's past. All of that said, the film doesn't shirk on the bloodletting, and the krasue itself, while created with CGI, looks incredible.